It's reports like these that have kept me from pumping my credit card numbers into a shopping cart.
Least not with Native Instruments throwing out Maschine Studio today...

Seems like the new Maschine package offers an awful lot of features (for an awful lot of money); not quite the dedicated hardware I was looking for but it is the dedicated 'interface'.

BUT - I'm not looking for a device to centralise, I'm looking for something to add to my setup which speeds up setting up Ableton Live, MaxForLive and Reaktor patches to offer me whatever I'm after.

I like the features/spec of the OT and I can definitely see me sat in my comfy chair, OT on my lap and tapping things in; like how I used to spend so many hours with my ol' MachineDrum UW Mk1._________________Crumar Bit 01, Roland SH32, 12u/104hp modular (90% DIY).
Ableton Live Suite 9, Max 7

I'm looking for a sequencer first, the fact it's an fx processor/sampler sweetens the deal.

So I can/'t record and playback poly notes to/from external gear?

I'm going to read the manual and pay some attention this time

You can record whatever you want into an audio track (single notes, chords, etc.).

I don't know what the polyphony limit is of the MIDI sequencer when recording chords played on an external MIDI keyboard. I can't find an example of the Octatrack MIDI sequencer being used to record incoming MIDI notes from an external controller - just examples of it recording MIDI CC. I'll defer to Venn Diagram.

Random thoughts:

Other people have described the Octatrack MIDI sequencer as an XOX style sequencer (as in, the style of Roland's classic grooveboxes like the TR-808), except probably more evolved.

I have read complaints about the Arpeggiator not having Swing, but I haven't used it, and the sequencer itself does have swing.

I've gotten quite comfortable using the Octatrack as a live looper of my viola and playing back sequenced audio slices taken from the loops. It was a painful journey to get to this comfortable place, but it was worth it, imo. I'm sure I'll discover more confounding aspects of this machine (eg. "What is the MIDI AutoChannel and where the heck is it set?" - I figured out the answer to get it to respond to my MIDI foot controller). In my case, it is the central piece of my solo performance rig._________________Current and recent work on Soundcloud

It does sound like the OT will do what I want of it, learning curve as an aside (I'm led to believe that the Cirklon is even steeper on that curve!)

My predicament is - I don't live anywhere near any store that carries any kind of 'music tech' beyond a local keyboard shop who, regardless of how many times you object, assure you that a Korg Oasys is what I really want.

I asked them back in Jan if they'd be likely to get any of the Ableton Push in, they looked blank and asked what it was...

So I'm down to Youtube, manuals and user-reviews - much deeper than before where I'd see an auction, check its price and look at Vintage Synth Explorer before I'd buy

Oh, and not that you need further selling, but the Octatrack can also do the wobbly pitch sound, like a cassette tape in bad shape (a la Boards of Canada). Each track has 3 LFOs, and the default config for these LFOs is the first one is assigned to modulating the pitch of the track upon playback. You get speed and depth controls for each LFO. Slower LFO speeds will probably get you close that bad tape player sound.

LFO modulation of pitch won't sound exactly like a worn cassette tape/tape player in need of repair, but I'm sure you could use EQ and maybe a bit of filtering and/or bit/sample rate reduction to touch up the sound to taste.

About 3 min. into this track, I turn up the LFO knobs to start modulating the pitch of the Flex machine track playing back the samples:

Oh, and not that you need further selling, but the Octatrack can also do the wobbly pitch sound, like a cassette tape in bad shape (a la Boards of Canada). Each track has 3 LFOs, and the default config for these LFOs is the first one is assigned to modulating the pitch of the track upon playback. You get speed and depth controls for each LFO. Slower LFO speeds will probably get you close that bad tape player sound.

LFO modulation of pitch won't sound exactly like a worn cassette tape/tape player in need of repair, but I'm sure you could use EQ and maybe a bit of filtering and/or bit/sample rate reduction to touch up the sound to taste.

About 3 min. into this track, I turn up the LFO knobs to start modulating the pitch of the Flex machine track playing back the samples:

This is gold - I assume that you can feed in modulation via MIDI.
LFOStudio on the Lemur for example, piping extra LFO information so I could add more than 3 LFO's to desired tracks.

Also - the monophonic side of the audio engine - I apologise if this is a studpid question; I know I can only trigger one sample at once, but does this choke a sample already playing? I assume it would..._________________Crumar Bit 01, Roland SH32, 12u/104hp modular (90% DIY).
Ableton Live Suite 9, Max 7

This is gold - I assume that you can feed in modulation via MIDI.
LFOStudio on the Lemur for example, piping extra LFO information so I could add more than 3 LFO's to desired tracks.

Also - the monophonic side of the audio engine - I apologise if this is a studpid question; I know I can only trigger one sample at once, but does this choke a sample already playing? I assume it would...

On that given track yes it would but it isn't a deal breaker, you can for example lock different samples to different step in a single track also for some rather clever stuff. I have another track coming on the new album which is a pretty bad assed drill'n'nbass opus done using the Monomachine, A4 and Octatrack that sounds super badass in the craziest sort of way.
just to totally fuck with your head tracks can both record/sample and play back at the same time also !!!!_________________Autocorrect is becoming my new enema .......

Yeah, as I thought and wasn't a problem before the confirmation of what I thought I knew.

It seems that I might not need the Cirklon for what I want to do with the OT afterall - my credit card has ran-away yelping..._________________Crumar Bit 01, Roland SH32, 12u/104hp modular (90% DIY).
Ableton Live Suite 9, Max 7

More useful reading on the Octatrack here - I don't know what the Elektron community's plans are for this site, now that it's been superseded by the Elektronauts site, so grab these documents while you can!

I've had a response, I've submitted my order - I'm told it'll be Nov/Dec when Colin finishes the next run.

Cirklon, here I come

Congratulations - you are going to be bogged down learning for a while i think - laughs. I switched to Logic mid last album production and had to get ASK training DVD's to do a stupidly fast crash course.
Was really pleased with the end result though - this is the full set (on sound cloud) of the whole album from start to finish. It's on bandcamp / beatport etc also but i like to give people a good long play preview of my material.
Feel free to give it a spin sometime, you might enjoy parts of it.

Getting the CVIO model of Cirklon, looking forward to that. Not yet ordered the OctaTrack (and the prices have just gone up too).
Might keep an eye out for a deal on a used one; Maschine seems to satiate most of my sample needs now anyways and I don't worry about the 'usable' FX as I can chain up any config I want via VST (and without rigging up I/O).

Getting the CVIO model of Cirklon, looking forward to that. Not yet ordered the OctaTrack (and the prices have just gone up too).
Might keep an eye out for a deal on a used one; Maschine seems to satiate most of my sample needs now anyways and I don't worry about the 'usable' FX as I can chain up any config I want via VST (and without rigging up I/O).

Logic looks so deep; I might take a look at L10 as I'm getting bored of Ableton nowadays.

Interesting to hear what you think of the Cirklon once you get your mitts on it._________________Autocorrect is becoming my new enema .......

I suspect an initially starry-eyed honeymoon period peppered with frustration followed by some 'I wish' gripes before I fully get Tue hang 12 months later!

Does the Octa offer hd recording per se? I know that it records audio, being a sampler et al, but how long can you capture audio for?_________________Crumar Bit 01, Roland SH32, 12u/104hp modular (90% DIY).
Ableton Live Suite 9, Max 7

I suspect an initially starry-eyed honeymoon period peppered with frustration followed by some 'I wish' gripes before I fully get Tue hang 12 months later!

Does the Octa offer hd recording per se? I know that it records audio, being a sampler et al, but how long can you capture audio for?

I think the limit is 8 x 16 steps on a 120 bpm setting. Something like 8 seconds, meaning fairly long phrases but not entire takes of a song. You can transfer long samples to the octatrack (that you have recorded elsewhere) and play those though - no time limit there._________________Antimon's Window@soundcloud@Flattrhome - you can't explain music

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